Display rack



SEPL 1968 R. N. COLOMBE 3,400,830

DISPLAY RACK Filed May 1, 1967 2 SheetsShee v 1 INVENTOR. IE .L E. 2

Sept. 10, 1968 R. N. COLOMBE DISPLAY RACK 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 1,1967 IN VEN TO R. @0550 M 60 0M6...-

I 4 ATTORNEY? United States Patent Olfice 3,400,830 Patented Sept. 10,1968 3,400,830 DISPLAY RACK Robert N. Colombe, 207 E. Grand, Tonkawa,Okla. 74653 Filed May 1, 1967, Ser. No. 634,973 8 Claims. (Cl. 211165)ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A display rack including a base having anangulated stem swivelly secured at one of its ends to the base andextending vertically therefrom. A horizontally extending upper endportion of the stem is secured to the center of a substantiallyhorizontal arcuate bar. A plurality of elongated supporting arms areswivelly secured to the bar at horizontally spaced points along the barand extend outwardly from the bar in a horizontal direction. The outerend of each of the arms is formed as a hook upon which document clipsmay be hung.

Background of the invention This invention relates to display racks, andmore particularly, the invention relates to a display rack which can beemployed for providing concurrent visual exposure of the front and backsurfaces of a number of substantially monoplanar papers upon which dataor other indicia are scribed.

Brief description of the prior art A number of types of display rackshave been devised for the purpose of displaying commodities or materialsof various types in order to permit a more comprehensive and accessiblevisual inspection to be made of all or certain portions of the displayedarticles. In many of these devices, a plurality of horizontallyextending swivelly mounted arms are provided in the apparatus with thearticles or devices to be displayed suspended from the horizontallyextending arms so that, as the arms are swivelled from one position toanother, the articles may be sequentially viewed. As an example of thetype of prior devices which have been contrived for this purpose, HansenUnited States Patent 1,697,866 may be cited. The Hansen patent isdirected to a display rack structure which is suited for displayingvarious types of fabrics and textile products. As has been indicated,the method of operation of display racks of this type is to swivel thearticle supporting rods apart from each other (in a divergentorientation) so as to expose the article suspended on one of the rodswhen it is desired to view this particular single article.

A problem which has characterized display racks of the type shown in theHansen patent, and many others operating on the same general principle,is that the articles which are to be displayed to visual inspection canfrequently only be viewed singly, rather than a plurality of thearticles being viewed simultaneously in their entirety. A portion ofthis difficulty arises from the fact that the points of pivotalattachment of the supporting rods used in this type of rack arefrequently relatively close to each other with the result that thearticles suspended on the rods are necessarily also close to each other,and it is difficult to obtain concurrent spacing of some of the articlesfrom each other to permit them all to be viewed in their entirety at thesame time.

Another problem with many types of display racks hereinbefore in use isthat the method by which the articles are to be displayed or supportedupon the rack prevents the articles from being freely turned in such away that both the front, back, and side surfaces of the article may beexposed without complete detachment of the article from the rack andrelocation on the supporting members. While with some types of articlesthis does not present any significant impediment to useful employment ofthe display rack, the described limitation renders such display racksunsuited for certain tasks where both a front and back surface of thearticle must be readily accessible to visual observation. For example,there are numerous occasions where a statistician, accountant, or taxattorney, in order to work efficiently and expeditiously, must haveready visual access to a number of forms and to the data which isusually carried on both sides of such forms. The display racks whichhave been heretofore contrived have not been constructed with theobjective of displaying paperwork of this sort, and consequently theyhave been ill-suited to this use.

Briew description of the present invention The present inventionprovides an improved display rack which is especially well adapted. forsupporting a number of data-carrying, substantially monoplanar documentsin an accessible and visually exposed position so that the transcriptionof data from such documents to other documents may be easily and quicklyaccomplished. The display rack of the invention is especially useful forthe purpose of copying data from the front and back sides of severalmonoplanar sheets of paper where it is necessary to intermittently referto the data carried by different ones of the sheets.

Broadly described, the present invention comprises a base having avertically extending stem swivelly mounted therein. The stem isangulated intermediate its length so that an upper end portion of thestem extends sub stantially horizontally. A horizontally extendingarcuate bar is secured to the upper end of the stem and supports aplurality of cantilevered support arms which extend horizontally fromthe arcuate bar and are swivelly attached thereto. The free outer endsof the support arms carry U-shaped hood portions which can be used toengage clips or clamps from which data-carrying documents are suspended.

An important object of the invention is to provide an improved displayrack which is especially well adapted for dispaying substantiallymonoplanar data-carrying articles such as legal documents.

Another object of the invention is to provide a display rack which canbe used to simultaneously display a plurality of data-carrying sheets ofpaper to permit the data to be quickly and easily .transcribedtherefrom.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a document displaydevice which can be utilized to permit data printed on the front andback of sheet documents to be quickly and easily subjected to visualscrutiny.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved documentdisplay rack which can be economically constructed and is characterizedin having a long and trouble-free operating life.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentas the following detailed description is read in conjunction with theaccompanying draWings.

Brief description of the drawings view taken along line 5-5 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken along line 66 of FIGURE 5.

Description of preferred embodiments In the drawings, the display rackof the present invention includes a base 10 which is generally circularin configuration, and which preferably is formed to include a pluralityof recesses or wells 12 in the upper surface thereof for accommodatingarticles such as paper clips, document clamps, and the like. These areused in conjunction with the display rack as hereinafter described. Thebase 10 is provided with 'a lower surface 14 which is configured topermit the base to be rested upon a flat supporting surface, such as atable top or the like. Extending through the center of the base 10 fromthe upper to the lower side thereof is a stem-receiving aperture 16which receives the lower end of an elongated, vertically extending stem18. The stem 18 is swivelly mounted in the base by means of cotter keys20 and washers 22, or any other suitable means. The stem is thus able torotate about its axis through an angle of 360. The upper portion 18b ofthe stem 18 is bent through an angle of about 90, and the free upper endof the stem is secured to an arcuate bar 24 at approximately themidpoint of the bar. The horizontally extending upper portion 18b of thestem 18 is preferably of a length such that the arcuate bar 24 is notpositioned above the base 10, but rather lies outside the verticalprojection of the base (see FIGURE 3).

A plurality of elongated supporting arms 26 which are made of a flexibleand resilient material, such as spring met-a1, are secured at one end tothe arcuate bar 24 with the points of securement of the arms to the bar24 being spaced horizontally from each other over the length of the bar.Each of the arms 26 is secured to the bar 24 by passing a verticallyextending end portion 27 of the arm through an aperture 28 formed in thebar, and spreading or flaring the tip 29 of the arm so that therespective arm cannot be removed from its respective aperture in thebar. In this way, each of the arms 26 can swivel about a vertical axis.Immediately adjacent to the end portion of each of the arms 26 whichpasses through an aperture 28 in the bar 24, each arm is provided with aspring loop 30 which functions to permit each arm to more easily recoverits substantially horizontally extending status after it has been bentfrom this position by the imposition of a weight on the outer end of thearm. The spring loop 30 also functions as a spacing element to space thehorizontally extending portion of the arm 26 above the bar 24 and thuspermit greater freedom of movement of the arm. At its outer end, each ofthe arms 26 carries a generally U-shaped hook portion 32, and it will benoted that the plane occupied by each of the U-shaped hook portionsextends at an angle of about 45 with respect to a vertical planecontaining the arm 26 to which the respective hook portion is connected.It will further be noted that those arms 26 adjacent one end of the bar24 have their hook portions 32 inclined in the opposite direction fromthe direction of inclination of the hook portion of the arms on theother end portion of the bar.

In the use of the display rack of the invention, a clip or clamp 34 forholding generally monoplanar sheets of paper or documents is hung orsuspended from each of the hook portions 32 of the arms 26. The documentcan then be clamped in the clamp or clip 34 and will hang downwardlytherefrom. The rack can accommodate a great number of such documents,and in each case, data or indicia scribed on one or both sides of eachdocument can be clearly and easily read by one who has need to refer tosuch data or indicia. By reason of the angulation of the U-shaped hookportions 32 on each arm 28 with respect to the arm, documents which aredisplayed on the rack from a clamp 34 hung on these hook portions can beeasily pivoted about the points where their respective clips or clampscontact the hook portions so as to alternately 4. P expose any portionof the document which it is desired to view. To the end of permittingthe most universal movement of the documents, the clamps 34 arepreferably of the type having spring biased, normally closed jaws 36 andan apertured handle portion 38 having an aperture therethrough which issufficiently large to loosely receive the respective hook portion 32. Itwill also be noted that the attachment of the arms 28 to a relativelylong arcuate bar 24 provides relatively good spacing between all partsof the several arms, and thus obviates the difliculty which has beenexperienced with many types of display racks previously in use ofencountering obscurement of many of the documents at such time as it isdesired to view a particular one of them. In other words, in the use ofthe rack of the present invention, several of the documents may beexposed to view simultaneously. This feature provides a marked advantagein using the rack for assisting the work of statisticians, accountants,and other persons in transcribing figures and data from one document toanother.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been hereindescribed in order to provide an example of its construction and mannerof use which will enable one skilled in the art to practice theinvention, it will be readily perceived that many changes andinnovations can be made in the described and depicted structure withoutdeparture from the basic principles which underlie the invention. Allchanges and innovations of this type are therefore deemed to becircumscribed by the spirit and scope of the invention except as thesame may be necessarily limited by the appended claims or reasonableequivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. A display rack comprising:

a base;

an angulated, elongated stern extending vertically from the base andswivelly mounted in the base, said stern including a verticallyextending portion and a horizontally extending upper portion;

a horizontally extending arcuate bar secured to the upper end of thestem; and

a plurality of substantially horizontally extending support arms eachpivotally mounted at one end to said bar .and each having a generallyU-shaped hook portion at its other end for engaging clips for supportingsubstantially monoplanar documents or the like, said support arms beingpiv-otally secured to said support arm at points spaced from each othertherealong.

2. A display rack as defined in claim 1 wherein each of said arms isconstructed of spring metal and includes a spring loop, a verticallyextending portion extending through said bar and a horizontallyextending portion spaced from said vertically extending portion by saidspring loop and extending between said spring loop and said U-shapedhook portion whereby each of said arms can swing across said arcuatebar.

3. A display rack as defined in claim 1 wherein said base is providedwith a plurality of wells in its upper surface for accommodating clipsand the like.

4. A display rack as defined in claim 1 wherein said arcuate bar ispositioned outside said base when said base is vertically projected.

5. A display rack as defined in claim 1 wherein said generally U-shapedhook portion of each arm lies in a plane which extends at an angle ofabout with respect to a vertically extending plane containing theremainder of the respective arm.

6. A display rack as defined in claim 1 further characterized to includeat least one clamp detachably engaged by the hook portion of at leastone of said arms, said clamp having spring-biased, normally closed jawsand an apertured handle portion, the aperture in said handle portionloosely receiving said hook portion whereby .said clamps can each bepivoted in universal movement on the respective hook portions.

7. A display rack as defined in claim 5 wherein said References Citedarcuate bar is positioned outside said base when said UNITED STATESPATENTS base is vertically pro ected.

8. A display rack as defined in claim 7 wherein each 9371155 10/1909Krasne 211-465 of said arms is constructed of spring metal and includesa 5 1,466,564 3/1923 Samuel 211 163 spring loop, a vertically extendingportion extending 1597,5566 1/1929 Haflsen 211-463 XR through said barand a horizontally extending portion 1,732,162 10/1929 Grmer spaced fromsaid vertically extending portion by said d I spring loop and extendingbetween said spring loop and ROY D FRAZER Puma), Exammer' said U-shapedhook portion. 10 W. D. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner.

